A few weeks ago we met Leonard Brown and his family, who recognised Leonard’s brother Stanley in one of the photos in our Visitor Centre. Stanley Brown worked at Underfall Yard for about 20 years from shortly after the end of the Second World War until the mid-1960s as an engineer, which Leonard says “was the making of him”. Leonard shared with us some lovely [...]
From September 2017, our Visitor Centre will not open on Mondays. The Visitor Centre will be open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am - 5pm until the clocks change. During GMT, the Visitor Centre will close at 4pm. The yard itself will still be open to walk through on Mondays. As a working yard, occasionally it may be necessary to close the yard gates at short notice [...]
We are delighted to announce that Underfall Yard and Alec French Architects have been awarded Bristol Civic Society's 2017 Design Award. Bristol Civic Society runs the prestigious Design Awards, which recognise developments in Bristol which make a positive contribution to the local environment through excellence of design. The Civic Society has made awards for many years, celebrating good quality design – buildings, transport projects and improvements [...]
Today, the yard gates were locked whilst a very exciting and dangerous operation was carried out. Star Yacht's launched Annabel. She was craned into the water and doesn't she look marvellous. She will only be with us for a short while (approximately 10 days) so if you want to see her, get down to the yard quickly for a sneak peak. To find out more [...]
A year ago, on 18 March 2016, we opened the doors of the Visitor Centre to the public for the very first time. On that first day, our volunteers braved the cold and rain to meet and greet members of the public. Ever since then, our wonderful and dedicated volunteers have greeted over 72,000 visitors by giving 5,000 hours of their time. Our volunteers are amazing: we are regularly [...]
Bristol Ferry's Independence arrived today at Underfall Yard for essential maintenance. She was built in 1927 to work the shallow waters of the River Severn and Wye. For a time Independence worked on the Erewash Canal in Derbyshire, built by the famous canal and harbour engineer William Jessop who was the main designer of Bristol Floating Harbour. She also spent some time working in the [...]
Congratulations to Tom Nash, a boatbuilder at the yard who has been awarded The Alfred Telling Award. Tom has worked at Underfall Yard since 2015 and worked for several yard businesses: Tim Loftus Boatbuilding, Star Yachts and RB Boatbuilding. The Alfred Telling Award is a Scholarship awarded annually to a young person from the City of Bristol to further their education and development in their chosen [...]
Rachel, a mechanical engineer, started working at Underfall Yard Trust this year as our Workshop Manager. Last year she began volunteering at Clifton Suspension Bridge and her experience there led to a career change, which brought her to the yard. And it is for that volunteering that she has won the South West category of the prestigious ‘Volunteers for Museum Learning’ award. For the seventh year The British [...]
Our mural was designed by young people from South Bristol with the help of local artist Katharina Nyilas. It celebrates Bristol’s Harbour Master and the amazing work that they do all year round. The Harbour Master’s team takes care of Bristol’s waterways from Netham Lock to Cumberland Basin. We are inviting our visitors and local community to help us paint the mural over Docks Heritage Weekend, 1&2 [...]
We are delighted to announce that our building works are due to be completed in September. Our contractors, John Perkins, have been with us since June 2015 to repair and restore many of our buildings. One of the great successes of the project is that none of the buildings look markedly different: structural works have been carried out sensitively using materials that blend in. Bricks [...]